January 20, 2011

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News: New ‘Magic Beyond the Box’ Article Up

by Dredd77

Ever wonder what it takes to make a successful Duel Decks release? Certainly balance between the decks makes the short list of critical factors, and in today’s Quiet Spec column I analyse the series with an eye on precisely that. What have they done right, what have they done wrong… and why was Phyrexia vs The Coalition- irony of ironies- a radical break from the past?

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Hey, great article…incidentally I was going to post a comment about a mental exercise I’ve been conducting: create duel intro theme decks. As much as I laud the precon effort, it’s very easy to criticize deck construction until one sits down to draft a list with the same constraints. It took me two days (during work breaks) to wrack my brain over theming 41 card decks (2 rares, 7 uncommons) using a variety of sets, then another day scrapping selections, rebalancing, etc. I’ve finally got something I’m happy with on paper, but need to playtest it to see if there are glaring errors. This is for any reader too, because the skills we utilize to make killer decks actually make for very boring or poorly balanced duel decks. Lemme know if I can send the list your way to see what you think.